During recent decades it has been realized that oil is a limited resource, and when taken together with the global political map and the fact that there are few countries that control the whole world's oil supply, the dramatic fluctuations in the oil barrel prices become somewhat understandable. On top of the high costs involved in maintaining fuel powered vehicles, the environment is also severely damaged by the ever growing excessive use of fuel powered vehicles. Although that many alternative green energy vehicles are available in the market nowadays (hybrid vehicles, natural gas vehicles, solar powered vehicle etc.), still none of them may be considered to have a substantial impact upon the vehicles' market which is almost fully dominated by fuel powered vehicles, and it is likely that this fact is not about to change in the near future. Improving fuel consumption of the various vehicles is also quite an issue for the engineers who design new vehicles as they strive to improve the vehicles' performance, where fuel consumption is one of the parameters considered by the potential purchasers of vehicles. Thus, the obvious approach to improve fuel consumption is by improving the engine efficiency thereby improving the vehicle's MPG (miles per gallon). However, another approach to achieve that goal is to improve the driving performances of the drivers who drive the vehicles. It has already been demonstrated that the manner at which a driving session is carried out by the driver has quite an impact upon the vehicle fuel consumption.
Thus, there are a number of prior art solutions that were suggested in order to allow monitoring fuel consumption of vehicles.
For example, US 2007027593 describes a system and method for monitoring fuel efficiency of a vehicle. According to this solution the fuel efficiency of a vehicle is monitored in real-time using telemetry transmitted from the vehicle. The telemetry may be analyzed in combination with a fuel efficiency model in order to determine whether the real-time fuel efficiency determination deviates from a baseline fuel efficiency. The fuel efficiency model may further be used to assign vehicles in a fleet to particular routes, vehicles to particular drivers, or vehicles to particular routes with particular drivers.
US 2008295586 describes an apparatus for real-time monitoring of fuel consumption of a vehicle. The apparatus includes a fuel sensor which is in communication with a data tracker. The fuel consumption information is sent to a remote monitoring network, where reports detailing fuel consumption are generated. The fuel consumption data provides a user with information about hourly fuel usage, average horse power, operator performance, the location etc.
Another solution is suggested by US 20090099724 which discloses systems and methods for monitoring vehicle efficiency by using wireless remote sensors associated with the vehicle and with a fueling station. Vehicle data is collected from the wireless sensors in conjunction with fueling of the vehicle. Efficiency is determined by calculating the miles per gallon for a vehicle, and stored in a computing system. The vehicle efficiency can be tracked over time to identify deviations or irregularities that may be addressed to improve overall vehicle efficiency for a fleet of vehicles that are all monitored in such a manner.
EP 1973078 discloses a method to enable an improvement in the driving efficiency of a vehicle by providing various indications to the driver of the vehicle. The indications are based on comparison of parameters that were recorded during previous drives of the very same route either by the current vehicle or by other vehicles, with currently recorded parameters, and using this comparison to provide indications to a driver of the vehicle reflecting an improvement/worsening of the driving efficiency. However, this publication does not teach the linkage between individual driving events taken by the driver and their impact upon the vehicle's fuel consumption.
US 2004093264 describes an Eco-Driving diagnostic system capable of quantitatively comprehending fuel consumption with respect to each event and environmental-load emissions owing to the fuel consumption. An in-vehicle device that acquires from the vehicle's sensor information necessary to comprehend fuel consumption and driving statuses of the vehicle. The information is transmitted to a center via a radio communication network. On the basis of the acquired information, fuel consumption owing to the vehicle's driving and environmental-load emissions owing to the fuel consumption are calculated.
US 2007247291 discloses a vehicle display device which can display fuel consumption information of a vehicle in a useful and optimum mode for a driver. A fuel consumption meter calculates an instantaneous fuel consumption of a vehicle based on a mileage and a fuel injection quantity within a set time, calculates an average fuel consumption of the vehicle based on respective cumulative values of the mileage and the fuel injection quantity repeatedly calculated for every set time, and displays the deviation of the instantaneous fuel consumption with respect to the average fuel consumption as fuel consumption information on a fuel consumption meter.
All of above publications try to solve a similar problem as does the present invention, to lead eventually to a decrease in fuel consumption, but all of them fail to provide an adequate solution to the problem at hand.